Damnation View, and Cthulhutech in general, avoids the pitfall of having the metaplot unfold across several adventures and sourcebooks that any given customer may or may not purchase, leaving anyone who doesn't buy every single game book out of the loop. Instead, Cthulhutech has Damnation View, which is a book dedicated to advancing the metaplot, that comes with the promise that all further plot development will be in further special books meant specifically for that purpose.

Damnation View is split into several chapters explaining the different sub-plots that unfold across the world during the year of 2086. The plots are short on "iconic characters" as they are meant to include players' characters in the action, and to that end, each chapter, after introducing the situation as it stands at the beginning of 2086, includes a large adventure that takes the PCs close to the center of the action, and in several cases, makes them the center of the metaplot, allowing them to directly affect the outcome of the various story threads.

Military and Tager groups get the biggest plotlines, but nobody is left entirely out, and many of them are vast extensions of rumors or plot threads introduced in the core book. Several of the scenarios have a high probability of ending in defeat or disaster for the PCs and their benefactors in the NEG - two of the major stories are simply foregone conclusions that are so large-scale that even the most heroic and high-powered of Engel pilots aren't going to change them, but there is also one story that allows the PCs to prevent a major defeat for humanity. This is addressed in the book - 2086 is introoduced at the beginning of the book as a nasty year for humans and nazzadi, and the final adventure ends with a grim revelation of epic proportions.

The adventures themselves are written in an open-ended, descriptive format that gives the GM a loose description of the important cast members (including their agendas), and the way events are likely to play out, but leaves the mechanical details to the GM, so that any given game can be customized to the needs of the PCs. I like this format, especially in a rules-lighter system system like Framewerk (as opposed to the time-consuming stat block generation of d20), as it does indeed take less time to set out to customize the adventure than it would to read through several pages of stats and scene-by-scene descriptions trying to find that one character or scene that won't make sense for my version of the game. Instead, given a general idea of what each character wants or does, and how the story should play out, I can easily create my own scenes, mechanics, and dramatic pace that matches the needs of my player group.

Finally, one of the stories introduces as its end a new allegiance for PCs, including three professions tied specifically to that faction. It's a fun idea that allows the PCs limited lisence to cut loose with special powers without being part of the Eldritch Society, or bad guys. I plan on proposing a game using these character types to my players sometime soon.

If you're looking for information on how the plot develops, it is in here, as is advice on how to put the PCs right in the thick of it. There's little in the way of crunch - just three new professions and a new monster. The plot does not end here, there are supposedly several more books like this planned. If they're all going to be like Damnation View, I will keep buying them. This book is well-written and gives the GM loads of information to work with without tying his or her hands completely.